1) Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to a pneumatic gun for shooting balls, such as balls filled with liquid paint for sporting events.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Popularity and developments in the paintball industry have led to the demand for increased performance from paintball guns. Paintball gun users usually partake in paintball war games. A paintball war game is generally played between two teams of players that try to capture the opposing team's flag. Each flag is located at the team's home base. Such a game is played on a large field with opposing home bases at each end. The players are each armed with a paintball gun that shoots paintballs. Paintballs are gelatin-covered spherical capsules filled with paint.
During the game, the players of each team advance toward the opposing team's base in an attempt to steal the opposing team's flag. The players must do so without first being eliminated from the game by being hit by a paintball shot by an opponent's gun. When a player is hit by a paintball the gelatin capsule ruptures and the paint is splashed onto the player. As a result the player is “marked” and is out of the game.
These war games have increased in popularity and sophistication resulting in more elaborate equipment. One such improvement is the use of semi-automatic and automatic paintball guns that allow for rapid firing of paintballs. As a result of the increased firing speed, a need has developed for increased storage capacity of paintballs in the paintball loaders that are mounted to the gun. Also, users demand faster feed rates as the guns continue to develop.
Paintball loaders typically include a housing that sits on an upper portion of a paintball gun and which is designed to hold a large quantity of paintballs. There is an outlet tube at the bottom of the housing through which the paintballs drop by the force of gravity. The paintballs pass into an inlet tube located in the upper portion of the gun.
In use, paintballs fall sequentially through the outlet tube into the inlet of the gun. The inlet tube directs each paintball into the firing chamber of the gun where the paintball is propelled outwardly from the gun by compressed air. Because existing paintball loaders rely on the force of gravity to feed the paintballs to the gun, they function properly to supply paintballs only if the gun and the loader are held in a substantially upright position. If, during a game, a player is forced to hold the gun sideways or upside down, the loader will not function properly.
Furthermore, it is not uncommon that, while feeding paintballs to the gun, the paintballs jam in the gun. In order to correct the problem, the player may shake the gun or strike the loader in order to dislodge the jammed paintball. This obviously places the player at risk during the game since the player is distracted by the need to adjust the equipment.
Conventional paintball loaders, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,816,232 to Bell et al., the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein, utilize an optical sensor mounted within the loaders to detect the absence of a paintball in the infeed tube of a paintball gun. When the sensor detects that there is no paintball in the infeed tube of the paintball gun, a motor is activated which causes a paddle to force a paintball into the paintball gun. Other conventional paintball loaders, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,511 to Kotsiopoulos et al., the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein, utilize agitators having sound sensors to sense a gun firing event. In response to the sound of the gun firing, an electrical signal is sent to activate an agitator that moves a paintball into the feed tube.
While recent feed systems are an improvement over the prior feeders, the current feed systems are complicated and costly to manufacture. Such systems may also lead to jamming.